Skip to main content

In The Giver, who are the people who care for others, closely monitor people, provide others with essential needs and are learning? How can they...

There are different types of caretakers in Jonas’s community.  The Nurturers take care of infants in their first year.  Babies are born to Birthmothers and assigned to family units at the Ceremony of One.  From that point, mother and father figures take care of the children until they leave the family unit.  There are also caretakers for the Old, who take care of the elderly before they are released. 


Elders are the ones who observe the community and make sure the rules are enforced.  They assign jobs to the Twelves and create family units by matching spouses and assigning them children. 



During the past year he had been aware of the increasing level of observation. In school, at recreation time, and during volunteer hours, he had noticed the Elders watching him and the other Elevens. He had seen them taking notes. (Ch. 2) 



Elders observe the general goings-on in the community, and they make changes to the rules if they are necessary.  If the Elders need help making a decision, they confer with the Receiver of Memory.  The Receiver only advises.  He does not have any actual power, even though it is considered a position of great honor. 


The needs of everyone in the community are provided for.  Everyone gets food, medication, clothing, and everything else from the community.  Jonas describes the community’s furniture. 



Furniture was standard throughout the community: practical, sturdy, the function of each piece clearly defined. A bed for sleeping. A table for eating. A desk for studying. (Ch. 10) 



The children are learning until they have finished training for their assignments.  From age Three to Eleven, they are in formal school.  After school they are cared for at the Recreation Centers.  At age Twelve, the children are given assignments and then become apprentices.  The training completion depends on the level of technical expertise needed for the assignment, but the children slowly attend regular school less and job training more. 


The community decided at some point in the past that they could achieve a Utopia, or perfect world, through Sameness.  This essentially means that there are strict rules for behavior and expectations for citizens, and anyone who does not fit in is eliminated.  They decided lethal injection, called release, was the most efficient way.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more